Rafting

The Rafting Axe, or Rafting Pattern, is characterized by a prominent wedge profile, a short poll, and, in some cases, a tapered edge leading to the poll. The typical weights for the pattern range from 3.5 pounds to 5 pounds, and the axe type may have a hardened/tempered poll.     Noted in advertising in central Pennsylvania as early as 1856, the Rafting Axe/Pattern’s emergence coincided with the heavy increase in logging, and an increase in transporting of timber via waterways, in central Pennsylvania and northern New York. The axe’s primary design was based on the need for an axe that could chop as well as be useful in the driving of connecting devices for manufacturing and sustaining “rafts”, or log conglomerations that were tied together (with chain or other material) for floating down rivers to processing facilities.    

  Early manufacturers of rafting axes in 1860 were “Mann” (likely William Mann and Company) and the R. Loveland Axe Company, both of whom were noted in the early industry journal “Raftman’s Journal”. It’s interesting to noted that in the late 1860, many advertisements noted “now with improved steel poll”, likely indicating that initial design did not include a hardened poll. By 1893, many Pennsylvania axe companies had begun manufacturing the Rafting pattern, including the Standard Axe and Tool Company of Ridgway, who advertised the pattern the first year they were in business, demonstrating the economic importance of the pattern at that time. Companies such as the Kelly Axe Manufacturing Company, the American Axe and Tool Company, and the Warren Ae and Tool Company were soon to follow.    

In the 1930s, with the Great Depression causing diversification of marketing, the Rafting axe found a new name in the “Constructor’s Axe”. As “Rafting” of lumber on rivers had decreased in the east, but construction needs persisted, the pattern was turned towards construction and demolition based consumers.    The War Board’s Limitation Orders during World War

II restricted the manufacturing of the pattern in March of 1942, but an amendment on January 10^th, 1945, allowed for their production once again, prior to the end of the war. Though not a commonly produced pattern during this century, production of the Rafting axe continued through the 1970s for a few larger manufacturers.    

   (As always, please remember that there is significant variance in the patterns made by different manufacturers, and this description is merely a guide for assistance in identification.)